Analysing marine legislation

Cooperative Research Report (CRR) shows how bowtie analysis can be used to look at management of pressures on marine ecosystems in light of Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

Published:
1 August 2018

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​​​​​​​As well as assess the status of MSFD descriptors, Member States have to enact programmes of measures to address the pressures of their activities in order to achieve or maintain good environmental status in each marine region. They also have to integrate the measures into national legislation taking into account other relevant EU Directives as well as indicate how their programmes are to be implemented.

Such integration requires a comprehensive analysis of relevant EU Directives and national legislation that currently address the objectives of the MSFD. This new Cooperative Research Report (CRR) ​demonstrates how the bowtie analysis is used to structure such an analysis in order to understand how and where the collective pressures and impacts are being managed.

Member States can use such an approach to analyse their legislation and policies to identify equivalencies with EU Directives and implement improvements where necessary.